Sorption/Desorption of the Human Drug Carbamazepine to Soil in the Presence of Other Trace Organics.

In arid regions reclaimed municipal wastewater is seen as a valuable source of water. Reclaimed wastewater has been shown to contain numerous organic compounds at trace levels. These include pharmaceuticals, pesticides, personal care products and hormones. The human drug carbamazepine is ubiquitous in reclaimed wastewater and is highly recalcitrant to degradation. It has been shown to transport through soils. A series of batch equilibrium experiments were conducted using carbamazepine with and without the presence of other pharmaceuticals. It was found that carbamazepine had higher Kf values when sorption occurred from a mixture containing five additional drugs than from solutions containing only carbamazepine. The use of batch equilibrium distribution coefficients from mono-constituent sorption studies may overestimate carbamazepine mobility.